A BIRKDALE councillor wants to see Sefton bid for a share of a £250m recycling fund.

Earlier this year Eric Pickles, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, announced the Weekly Collection Support Scheme.

Councillor Simon Shaw, who is cabinet member for environment, hopes Sefton lodges a successful bid for the grant so Southport homeowners can begin recycling cardboard and plastic from their doorsteps.

Cllr Shaw (Lib Dem) said: “I am very aware that there is strong public support locally for the idea of the council collecting cardboard and plastic. The problem until now has been finding the £1m extra that it would cost each year.”

“Last month’s announcement by Eric Pickles of the £250m Fund appears to be a Godsend. If we are successful with a bid then it would only need a modest contribution from Sefton Council’s own budget in order to introduce doorstep collections of cardboard and plastic.”

“At my request officers have been preparing a report with a view to the Council submitting an initial expression of interest before the mid-March deadline. Of course there is no guarantee that we would be successful as the Government guidelines put an emphasis on supporting the reintroduction of weekly general waste collection.

“ However I understand that very few, if any, councils will be putting bids in on that basis, despite misleading national newspaper headlines. Accordingly I think there is every chance that Eric Pickles will end up widening the coverage of the scheme.”

“I hope local residents will support this plan – after all the Government Scheme is all about giving financial support to help councils deliver what local people want.”

The Government said that only councils that guarantee weekly collections for five years and demonstrate improvements in recycling .